Paul Bramadat

Paul Bramadat is Professor and Director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria, with teaching appointments in the Department of History and Religious Studies.

His research focuses on the intersections of secularism, religious radicalization, nationalization, postcolonialism, and religious identity in contemporary Canada. Much of his work is interdisciplinary and policy-relevant, examining religious, political, and ethnic identities in rapidly developing liberal democratic societies. He has developed the concept of "reverential naturalism" to describe spiritual attitudes toward nature in the Pacific Northwest.

He is the author of The Church on the World's Turf and editor of several significant volumes including International Migration and the Governance of Religious Diversity, Religion and Ethnicity in Canada, Religious Radicalization and Securitization in Canada and Beyond, and Public Health in the Age of Anxiety: Religious and Cultural Roots of Vaccine Hesitancy.

Bramadat currently leads a Council on Social Sciences and Humanities-funded project investigating the convergence of religion, environmentalism, and bioregionalism in the Pacific Northwest, with particular focus on why British Columbia has nearly twice as many religious "nones" as the rest of Canada.

His research has practical implications for understanding how regional secularization patterns affect social service provision and the shaping of social norms in Western liberal democracies.